Being Asian in the Modern World

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In November last year I decided to become vegetarian. Why would I do this, you ask?

Well to give you a little bit of background, I have a Chinese and Malay heritage. My mother is Muslim and I am a Catholic. But that can’t be true you say! Oh but it is! My dad won that battle of the religions.

I grew up not being able to eat Pork in the house for obvious reasons. And, if you don’t know Chinese people they love their Pork. We spend copious amounts of time at Dim Sum (or Yum Cha as some people prefer to call it) and this means gorging on Pork. If it wasn’t so sweet tasting I don’t think I would have gorged on it as much as I did. The meat is so succulent and my grandma used to feed us Sweet Pork when ever we went back to Singapore to visit.

Now, when I was growing up my mum didn’t really let us have pets. I didn’t feel any connection to animals until I grew up and got my first cat. Now I have 5 cats and 1 dog. They are the cutest little things and before you say it – no I don’t eat cats because that would be so stereotypical of me!

Come meet my family:

We have princess chopper – who is a male cat but acts like a princess

And sable the snob

Then we have Picasso – the only cat that loves me

And Saffy the biatch

Miu miu – my boyfriends cat – the most fun loving

And my big old gal Misty – I got her from a shelter because she was abandoned

And a kangaroo (because all Australians have one in their back yard right?)

I don’t watch much television, but when I do I seem to always be bombarded with documentaries and news stories about the mistreatment of animals. I see chickens cooped up in cages forced to live in their own shit and pee and see random Asians playing around and making fun of cows before they are to be slaughtered. When I see videos of this it makes me sad because if I was bred for food, I would think the giants or aliens would have enough decency to treat me with a little respect before I came to my untimely end. Even though when I grow old I will probably live day to day in my own pee and poo, forced to wear adult diapers, I would still not want to be crammed into cages with another 50 humans. So why should an animal be treated that way?

Also, we have no idea really what is in our meat and the thought of a baby animal in my food makes me cringe. I wouldn’t eat my baby cat or dog so why would I eat a baby lamb or baby pig? This is what makes my heart melt:

You probably look at a pig and think hmmm yummy bacon or what an ugly looking thing but all I see is cuteness. Because I am on a life’s beauty path, I have stopped eating meat altogether and enjoying what mother nature has to offer me without harming the animals. She won’t be out to get me now!

Not the teacup pig! You can’t say no to a teacup pig! How I Met Your Mother much?

So in short, it means going to Dim Sum will be way harder for me now. I have not been since I became vegetarian and my challenge will be tomorrow when I have to go for a family occasion. Challenge accepted!